Eastbound lanes were closed for several hours following crash at 6:30 a.m.

6:00am 11/11/09 UPDATE: The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has identified the motorcyclist who was killed in a Tuesday morning crash on Paseo del Norte near Coors as 47-year-old Phillip Precord.

An early morning crash Tuesday on eastbound Paseo del Norte claimed the life of a motorcyclist, a spokeswoman for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department said.

Erin Kinnard Thompson said the accident occurred about 6:30 a.m. and resulted in the eastbound lanes being closed until shortly before 10 a.m.

The name of the motorcyclist was not immediately released because deputies had not been able to notify the family.

Kinnard Thompson said in a news release that according to the department’s traffic sergeant, the motorcyclist was eastbound in the far right lane of Paseo del Norte, moved into the middle lane and lost control when braking because a truck braked. The motorcyclist was thrown from the bike and run over by another vehicle, killing him.

Neither the motorcyclist nor the driver of the vehicle that ran over him showed any signs of intoxication or drug use, Kinnard Thompson said.

She said authorities were searching for the truck and the Sheriff’s Department was asking anyone with information about it to contact the department.

“All we have is that it is an older model (70’s-80’s) orange or rust colored Chevy truck. No other details,” Kinnard Thompson said in the news release.

Updated at 10:00 a.m. — Eastbound Paseo reopens to traffic.

8:30am UPDATE: Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies are trying to locate a potential witness to this morning’s fatal crash at Paseo del Norte and Coors, sheriff’s spokeswoman Erin Kinnard Thompson said in an e-mail.

The potential witness was driving an orange- or rust-colored older model (`70s or `80s) Chevrolet pickup truck, which left the scene, Kinnard Thompson said.

8:10am UPDATE: Eastbound commuters may have to detour all the way to Bernalillo to escape the traffic jams caused by the closure of Paseo del Norte’s eastbound lanes following a fatal crash this morning, 770 KKOB Radio’s traffic reporter Helen Wheels is warning.

Eastbound traffic on the alternate routes on Alameda, Montano and I-40 is bogged down, and commuters are in for a long wait, no matter which way they’re crossing from the West Side, Wheels said.

A motorcyclist has died in an early-morning crash that has forced the shutdown of eastbound Paseo del Norte at Coors Boulevard and has traffic choked on Alameda, Montano and as far south as eastbound Interstate 40, according to KOB-TV and 770 KKOB Radio.

The crash involved a motorcycle and a car, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Erin Kinnard Thompson said in an e-mail.

The accident occurred around 6:30 this morning, and the shutdown of eastbound Paseo del Norte could last for quite some time, Kinnard Thompson told KKOB.

The identity of the male motorcyclist, who died at the scene, hasn’t been released.

Traffic is also tied up on the north-south Coors Corridor, and a stalled vehicle and an earlier crash on eastbound Montano is making this morning’s commute “ugly,” according to KKOB’s Helen Wheels.

Breaking at 6:48am — Eastbound Paseo Closed at Coors: Motorcycle accident on eastbound onramp has traffic backed up this morning.

West Side commuters are urged to avoid eastbound Paseo del Norte following an early-morning accident at the Coors on-ramp involving a motorcycle, KOB-TV’s traffic reporter is saying.

Eastbound Paseo is closed at Coors, and motorists need to find an alternate route across the river, on Alameda to the north or Montano to the south, KOB-TV said.